As known, rolling bearing cages serve to retain and guide rolling elements in a rolling bearing and, depending on the purpose of use, they are made either out of metal or out of a plastics material. One purpose of use, for instance, is the so-called idler pinion mounting in which a machine component mounted for rotation through the rolling bearing is either coupled to a shaft or idles loosely about the shaft. Such a machine component is for instance a gearwheel in a mechanical transmission.
EP 0 016 880 A1 discloses a ring-shaped rolling hearing cage that is made up of a plurality of cage segments. Each end of the cage segments comprises a means for connection to an adjoining cage segment. The means are configured so that a pair of connected segments is inseparable at least in the peripheral direction of the rolling bearing cage. Each connection means comprises, in peripheral direction, a lash that permits an enlargement or a diminution of the cage diameter upon a change of temperature.
However, a rolling bearing cage composed of a plurality of cage segments has a drawback because its assembly requires a great amount of time and, in addition, errors can occur during assembly. Because, besides this, the connection means configured on the ends of the cage segments cause an extensive mechanical manufacturing complexity, such a rolling bearing cage is also very expensive to manufacture.
DE 41 24 838 A1 discloses a rolling bearing cage that can be economically manufactured, has a low weight, is supposed to be simple to assemble, and whose shape is variable so that the rolling elements can be displaced in radial direction. In particular, the installed cage is supposed to possess a shape whose variation with rising temperature causes the rolling elements to be displaced. This object is claimed to be achieved, among other things, by the fact that two elastic webs extending at an inclination to the peripheral direction are arranged on one peripheral point of the cage while being connected to each other through a snap-lock device for enabling a stepwise variation of the diameter. In addition, the above-mentioned object is supposed to be achieved through an open cage in which, on one point of the periphery, two cage ends are connected to each other through a snap-lock device for the stepwise variation of the diameter. How the snap-lock device reacts to changes in the operational temperature is not disclosed in DE 41 24 838 A1.
In such solution variants, the influence of temperature on a compulsory, concomitant change in diameter apparently plays a subordinate role because the diameter of the cage can only be varied through mechanical adjustment, in practice, such cages prove to have a drawback because their radial assembly over a shaft is not possible without a notable expenditure of time and a high complexity.
A simpler assembly of the rolling bearing cage compared to the aforesaid configurations is described in DE 10 2007 048 655 A1 in which a plastic cage is made up of a plurality of cage segments. The respective ends of two adjoining cage segments form a connection device which comprises a limited lash between the cage segments in peripheral direction of the cage. Even the use of such a cage for instance for an idler pinion mounting, for example of a gearwheel in a transmission, is accompanied by a high expenditure of time for the assembly and only a comparatively short durability of the rolling bearing cage.